Cardiologists Creating a Bad Rap for Themselves

I won't go as far as the headline on this article, but it still raises some issues that are valid. We as patients need to be concerned about the behavior of cardiologists and their proclivity to prescribe statins. We also need to be cautious with other doctors that push statins.

When this article appeared, Allen called me and asked if I had received it. When I answered yes, he was happy that I had and related to me something he had not disclosed to the rest of us. He said that a cousin of his had gone to a doctor because of a heart arrhythmia and was taken into an operation to put a pace maker in him. Normally everything should have gone normally, but during the operation, his cousin had passed and they were unable to revive him.

The doctors wanted his wife to immediately transfer him to the crematorium as he had requested if something went wrong. Allen said the wife had refused as she wanted a complete autopsy and had the funeral home take possession of the body. A few days later when the autopsy was complete, Allen learned that the arrhythmia was a minor problem, and that he was severely deficient in magnesium and potassium.

After reading the article, I could understand Allen's anger. It is widely understood that too little magnesium, potassium, or iron can cause arrhythmia, but apparently, many cardiologists seldom test for this.

I asked Allen if his cousin was on a statin and Allen said yes. He added that his cousin's wife was now sorry she had encouraged him to stay on the statin. Allen said his cousin's wife had sent him a copy of the autopsy, but he did not understand all of it, but he had thanked her for the autopsy and having it done, as it showed that the cardiologist had probably made a huge mistake.

His wife said that she had contacted an attorney, but still was not sure what could be accomplished.

Allen said he could not see from the autopsy anything about CoQ10 like the article stated about statins depleting the body's CoQ10. Allen said he was happy that he had stopped the statin a couple of years earlier because he now does not trust his doctor to even consider this. Allen said he almost laughed at the statement in the article - “Statin use has become what appears to us to be a kind of religion, an unchallengeable article of faith among some doctors.”

The article is very uncomplimentary to cardiologists. It says heart operations are big business. They produce about $100 billion in revenue per year. Hospitals and doctors depend on this revenue. It may be clouding their judgment.

Again, a Doctor Refuses to Test for Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Allen called Friday morning in a panic. He said that a friend of his could not get tested for vitamin B12 deficiency. He was seeing the same doctor Allen had his trouble with. Allen wondered if he should take his friend to the endocrinologist we see or take this up with the local doctor. He said his friend had been taking metformin longer than he had.

I suggested that he try the local doctor and see if he was sincere in the concern he had expressed earlier. Allen said this was what he was thinking and said he would call me back later. That afternoon he called and said the doctor had taken him immediately and did several tests like the endocrinologist had done on him. Allen said that his vitamin B12 level was even lower than his had been. His vitamin D level had been slightly higher than Allen remembered his had been. Then Allen said the doctor had also checked the potassium and magnesium levels and they were low.

Once the doctor had the test results and found out why he had not been tested by his doctor, Allen said he had called the doctor and made his results known and told the doctor to be in his office that evening. Allen said he then called the pharmacy to see what they had for potassium and magnesium supplements and wrote a note for him to purchase the supplements and take one a day for 30 days and he would be retested then.

Then Allen was asked to leave the room while he gave vitamin B12 and D shots. In the discussion when Allen was back in the room, the doctor asked his friend not to drive until his levels were back in the normal range. He then asked Allen to let him know if he did drive and he would ask for his license. He was scheduled for shots in the next two weeks and then he would be tested again the third week before they decided whether he needed more shots. He would be started on vitamin B12 and D supplements at that time if no more shots were required.

Allen said that he was asked to stay while his friend checked out. The doctor had thanked him for bringing his friend and said that this would go a long way in helping him convince this doctor that many people could not eat their way to good health and levels of vitamin B12 on metformin. I told Allen that I had sent the URLs for this article and this article to the doctor and received a thank you for sending them. Allen asked me to send them to him as well.

Allen said his friend wanted to drive, but Allen said the doctor was serious and recounted what had happened to him. Allen said he had also alerted his friend's daughter about the situation and she had agreed to help her father until this was over.  I asked Allen how old his friend was and Allen said only a year younger than he was.

Allen anticipated my next question and stated that he was on VA assistance and that he had been warned about his vitamin B12 levels, but had ignored them. I said he may not have been very low or they would have given him a shot then.

Allen said his friend had asked him to drive for his tests the following week at the VA and then for his appointment the week after. I said that he may be taking them serious now, but at least he knows. I commented to Allen that he could send out an email to everyone now and emphasize to people the importance of being tested for vitamin B12 especially if they had friends or relatives on metformin. Allen thanked me for allowing him to do this and he would have Tim send it on to people in the other groups.

Allen concluded by saying he had asked his friend to consider joining our support group, but his friend was not sure he wanted to. Allen said he was not going to pressure him, but would continue to promote the idea with him.

Receiving Test Results Confusing for Patients

Do you know how you receive your lab test results? When I blogged about this last year, I received many emails saying that keeping lab test results just added to the waste of paper. They mostly claimed they could get the test results from their doctor anytime they needed them. Okay, but I have now encountered several more people that asked why I did not cover the length of time they would have to wait for these lab test results once they requested them. Most required waiting two to three weeks and in a few cases, the wait was 30 days. The law is on the side of doctors when they make you wait 30 days.

This is one reason I encourage asking at the time of your appointment for the lab test results. Yes, it may surprise the doctor when you haven't done this before, but most will do this and if you say that is what you want from now on, they will have a copy ready for you. This will eliminate the paperwork being completed later requesting the lab reports and the up to 30-day wait. I don't expect everyone will do like I do and record the results on a spreadsheet or like a couple of my friends who enter them in a database. The acquaintance from a previous blog is keeping them in a file now and is glad he is as there has been a second time when the doctor overlooked a lab result that could have put him back in a hospital. When he confronted the doctor about this, the doctor played down the importance.

My acquaintance has since transferred doctors and his new doctor agrees with him about the importance of his lab results and covers the lab results with him and makes sure that they do not miss anything. He now talks about what landed him in the hospital the first time. He has type 2 diabetes and had been on metformin for 10 plus years and has had excellent results. It was the Vitamin B12 deficiency that had caused him to pass out and the hospital discovered several other vitamin and mineral deficiencies, some of which required his remaining in the hospital longer to bring the levels back to normal because if administered too rapidly could have had toxic effects.

His wife is very set against any support group and will not let him belong to our group. She does let him communicate with me and read my blogs and some other blogs, so like he says, he is learning. He also does research and continually asks me for more material by subject, but is learning how to find some on his own. He is not afraid to ask questions and has found some of the poor sites with misinformation and this is when his questions increase. He now sends me the URL and I can tell him why the site is good or bad and to ignore it. His new doctor is knowledgeable about vitamins and minerals and is working with him to keep his levels near normal. He says that some foods are now furnishing many of the requirements and he is eating more of these foods and actually liking them.

He is taking a few supplements at the request of his doctor and against the protests of his wife who does not believe in them. On a challenge from him, she had her doctor do the tests for vitamins and minerals and it was discovered she was short of a couple herself. She was not happy to receive the Vitamin D shots and needing to take a couple of other supplements, but is doing so after her doctor discussed what the shortages could cause if she did not take the supplements. Her doctor is working with her to increase the foods containing the shortages and this is helping both of them.

Since Brenda from our group knows her, she has been working with her on the vitamin and minerals and with the help of Brenda's daughter about nutrition. Brenda is also talking to her about letting her husband join our group. So far the answer has been no, but several are saying that she should come as well. We will wait for an answer from Brenda.

The lesson that needs to be learned is that if you are taking metformin, please make sure your doctor is doing the test to determine the levels of Vitamin B12 and while he is at it, also the level of Vitamin D. Read my blog here on Vitamin B12.